I have about ten minutes this morning to come up with guitars not only for today, but for tomorrow as well. Usually, when I am heading up to New York for an appointment that cannot be avoided, I find reason to celebrate – but not this time, not AT this time. I have to go to the city, do what I have to do, and find a way to get out – as millions are arriving to celebrate the New Year. This is not good planning. But the train tickets are purchased, the hotel room booked, and hopefully, by the time things are really starting to rev up with incoming revelers, I will be well away. Nor can I trust to fate to find a guitar in the city – no time for that, and I already found that it was not as easy as I thought it should be. Of course, this time, I will find at least one, and I will have that for my return, but for now, I am trusting more to what I can put together this morning.

It is raining. Stepping out of the house requires an umbrella or a hat (well, for most people…I often just forget) so my thoughts turned to hats…I have sort of done this before, but it is what is at hand, and that’s the best I can expect from me today…